The 79th anniversary of the D-Day landings has been commemorated with a remembrance service.

The service saw the Mayor of Douglas, Councillor Natalie Byron-Teare, lay a wreath as part of The Act of Remembrance during a short service held in the gardens adjacent to Douglas Town Hall.

It was conducted by the mayor’s chaplain, the Reverend Monsignor John Devine, Dean of the Catholic Church in the Isle of Man, close to the plaque in memory of Hector Duff, the Manx war hero who took part in the landings. He died in November 2019 at 101.

A small gathering of councillors, officers and representatives from service organisations was headed up by president of the Normandy Veterans’ Association and former Lieutenant Governor, Sir Laurence New CB CBE, who read the Ode to Remembrance.

Nearly 160,000 troops from Britain, the US, Canada and other nations landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944.

The landings in Northern France were key in securing victory for the allies in the Second World War and it remains the largest seaborne invasion in history.